WEST WARWICK— Cox Communications, through the “Cox Conserves” initiative, unveiled a new solar farm at their West Warwick location; a step to establish a more sustainable environment.

Numerous government officials and employees of the company gathered on the lawn at 9 James P. Murphy Industrial Highway for a ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cox Communications John Wolfe announced the completion of two solar farms in West Warwick and Portsmouth.

With the help of federal tax credits under the Business Energy Investment Tax Credit program and the Rhode Island Distributed Generation Law, the company was able to build the two farms, which will generate nearly 850,000 kilowatt hours; the equivalent of 77 averaged-size homes.

The solar farm located on the West Warwick building is a 181 kilowatt system made up of 600 solar panels distributed between two buildings.
With the assistance of both solar farms, 573 tons of carbon will be prevented from entering the environment.

Because of the partnership with National Grid, Wolfe explained that 100 percent of the clean energy generated from the solar panels will be used to serve the community.

Tim Horan, President of National Grid in Rhode Island, told the crowd that the Distributed Generation program is “really starting to grow. We see these installations up and running; we have a good program with the legislatures.”

The Distributed Generation program was established in 2011 and this law enables small renewable energy projects to come to fruition.

Through the program, National Grid is required to enter into a fixed-price for 15 years to buy back extra energy from solar or wind energy projects.

Horan explained that the program has grown in the state by 73 percent since 2011.

“It’s just not the solar panels we have going on, Cox Conserves focuses on real sustainability and community involvement,” he added.

“They’re involved in river clean up, energy and water conservation, land conservation and alternative energy. These are some of the programs they’re involved with and I can’t say enough about our partnership.”